KCCF Now Accepting Applications For The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship

The Kosciusko County Community Foundation is now accepting applications for the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship until September 15, 2026. This scholarship is a four-year, full-tuition scholarship that allows recipients from each participating Indiana county to attend an Indiana college or university of their choice. Locally, the Kosciusko County Community Foundation recommends two recipients through a blind review process. Top applicants are submitted to Independent Colleges of Indiana, the statewide administrator of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program, for the final selection.

When reviewing applicants, the Community Foundation considers criteria including academic excellence, community service, extracurricular involvement, work experience, references, and essay responses. Eligible applicants must be:

• Kosciusko County residents who are a current high school senior and will receive their diploma from an accredited Indiana high school no later than June 30, 2027;
• Intending to pursue a full-time baccalaureate course of study at an accredited public or private nonprofit college or university in Indiana;
• Pursuing an academic and/or technical honors diploma at the end of their junior year of high school;
• Have a GPA of 3.8 or higher on a 4-point scale or 10.3 or higher on a 12-point scale at the end of their junior year of high school.

Students interested in applying should visit the Community Foundation’s scholarship portal at https://www.kcfoundation.org/scholarshipportal and complete the 2027 Merit Based Scholarships application.

Lilly Endowment Inc. created the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program for the 1997-98 school year and has supported the program every year since with tuition grants totaling more than $505 million. More than 5,400 Indiana students have received Lilly Endowment Community Scholarships since the program’s inception.

The primary purposes of scholarships are: 1) to help raise the level of educational attainment in Indiana; 2) to increase awareness of the beneficial roles Indiana Community Foundations can play in their communities; and 3) to encourage and support the efforts of current and past Lilly Endowment Community Scholars to engage with each other and with Indiana business, governmental, educational, nonprofit, and civic leaders to improve the quality of life in Indiana generally and in local communities throughout the state.